Pumas' Truax is a big-time scorer

Pumas' Ben Truax is a big-time goal scorer from a small school

Kitsap Pumas forward Ben Truax was a prolific scorer at Walsh University in Ohio. He set the school record for career goals with 51.
(STEVE ZugschwerDT | Special to the Kitsap Sun)

Kitsap Pumas' Ben Truax (right) leads the team with five goals and 11 points. He has the size and the speed to make life difficult for opposing defenses.
(STEVE ZugschwerDT | Special to the Kitsap Sun)

Kitsap Pumas' Ben Truax (left) celebrates with teammate Greg Miley after scoring the first of his two goals last weekend against Portland.
(STEVE ZugschwerDT | Special to the Kitsap Sun)

Ben Truax wasn't one of those soccer players hell bent on playing for a big-time university coming out of high school.

Basically, he didn't want his backside getting sore from sitting on the bench as a freshman.

"The main thing I wanted to do was just play right off the bat," he said.

Truax found that opportunity at a small NAIA school — Walsh University — in his home state of Ohio.

He finished his career with the Cavaliers as the school's all-time leading scorer with 51 goals, 20 of which came in his senior season.

In his first season with the Kitsap Pumas, Truax has maintained his goal-scoring ways. Through eight games with the defending Premier Development League champions, he leads the team with five goals and 11 points. He scored two goals in Saturday's 2-2 draw against Portland.

Kitsap coach James Ritchie, rarely hesitant to give honest opinions about his players, believes the 22-year-old Truax might just be scratching the surface.

"He's got the potential, if he keeps improving, of being an MLS caliber player," Ritchie said.

The goal-scoring is only part of what makes Truax special. His frame — 6-foot-1, 185 pounds — suggests he's more of a target player up front, someone who can play with his back to goal, accept balls to his feet, and find players running off the ball.

But Truax also has the wheels and the work rate to be a player who runs onto balls and finds the back of the net. It's how he scored both his goals against Portland.

"That's the thing that makes him deceptive. He can kind of fill both roles for us," Kitsap goalkeeper/assistant coach Dustyn Brim said. "That's where he messes people up. All of a sudden, he just goes. ... He's like a race horse. He's very, very explosive. He gets those first three steps on you very quickly."

Once Truax gets in front of net, he knows how to bury shots — something the Pumas haven't always seen out of their forwards in the past.

"That's when he's at his best, one touch in front of the goal," Brim said. "He can finish. The boy knows where the net is. He's got that end product."

How exactly did Truax, who played in the PDL last year for the now-defunct Akron Summit Assault, find his way to Kitsap?

During the pre-season, Truax attending a scouting combine in Alabama. There he was seen by Chase Neidig, a former director of player development for the Dayton Dutch Lions of USL-Pro.

Neidig had met Brim roughly five years ago at a tryout and the pair traded emails in recent years, so when it came time to recommend Truax to a PDL team, Neidig contacted the Pumas.

Kitsap invited Truax to open tryouts in March, and the rest is history. Now he has the chance to see his career blossom with the Pumas.

"He came from a small college and the guy can play," Brim said. "And would he ever get a look if he doesn't come here? Probably not."

Kitsap's never had a problem taking chances on players from smaller colleges and universities. That's not going to change as long as Ritchie is calling the shots.

"There are a lot of fantastic players at those schools," said Ritchie, who himself played at the NAIA level at Missouri Valley College.

"Some people, they look at players and think, 'They never got into the D-I schools.' ... Where a player went to school is far down on my list of priorities."